he reinvented tapping i believe but Harvey Mandel was doing it long before eddie was.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Jimmy Webster was doing it on his White Falcon before any of them....

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Always remember going to see Sabbath at the Birmingham (UK) Odeon on the Die Young tour. Rumour going around was that the support band had to be seen. We'd normally be in the bar whilst the support acts played, but we thought we'd better check them out.

The band were called Van Halen and they'd just released their first album apparently:

What can I say? I was completely blown away. Lee Roth and co were superb, but Eddie seemed to have come from another dimension. His trem work, and unfathomable tricks (he turned his back to the crowd for his endless solos) left me open mouthed. As a guitarist myself, I immediately knew that this was the start of something very different in electric guitar playing. That the future was here..

Needless to say, the hardened Sabbath fans around me loved them, and they got a superb reception.

As for Sabbath (in Bham and on home ground remember), they played 2 numbers then stopped. And that was the end of the gig.. Later on, a bloke came on the stage in a dinner jacket and made an announcement "that the news was bad, and tonight's show was cancelled due to technical problems.."

Sabbath were later re-scheduled at the same venue and they were pretty good, but I've always wondered whether or not those technical problems were real, or if Tony Iommi just didn't want to follow Van Halen on his home stage that night..

True story..

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

Somehow cherokee,if I've ever known about Webster,I had forgotten it,thanks for the name,I looked him up and read about his "touch technique" or "touch guitar"....interesting.

hey rebel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ddn4MGaS3N4

this is an example of modern touch guitar, a far cry from yesteryears version.

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63supro
"The good thing is in a club situation, most of the patrons are trashed and really can't tell the difference."

Van Halen falls into a category I've created (in my head) for certain bands.

REM, U2, The Beatles, VH, Hank Williams Jr., Led Zeppelin and several others are in this category. It's not a style or genre of music, and many of the artists have nothing to do with one another.

The category is called, "Bands That I Love Every Other Song, But Hate The Rest of Their Songs".

It's weird, because I can put on a disc by any of the bands in this category and I'll be rockin' half the time and diving for the "skip" button on the others. I can't say it's a true 50/50 split for all those bands/artists, but it's pretty dang close.

So--"Hot For Teacher"? Love it!
"Dreams"? Hate it!
"Black and Blue"? Awesome!
"Dancing In The Streets"? Shoot me!

There's no rhyme or reason to which song is "good" or "bad" in my head for these groups, it's just the way it is.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

i didn't love van halen when i was younger, i liked punk and metal more. I never disliked Van Halen but i wasn't a fan But i must admit that as the years ticked by i found myself enjoying them more.
when the first GnR album came out i (and most fans) thought they would be unstoppable. Appetite for destruction was a monster. Unfortunately so were the egos of the band so as many, success consumed them as did their addictions and stupidity. Now it seems that the 2 have flipped to me, i enjoy Van Halen more and think that GnR was just a one trick pony.

Axyl Rose is a monster. It was never going to be more than a huge incendiary bang, and "Appetite" was that bang.

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Fender Highway & Classic 60s Strats, Fender Toronado, Telecaster, Gretsch Projet, Charvel 3, PRS SE Soapbar II & Custom 24, Burns Batwing and many others!

i will clarify that i think both EVH and Slash are incredible in their own way. i was commenting on the bands not the individuals.

Guess I'm one of very few that liked Sammy and Dave. I preferred Daves voice but I think Sammy did some really good stuff as well as Dave.

Van Halen - Running With The Devil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E3zUyGzq2k

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you can save the world with your guitar one love song at a time it's just better, more fun, easier with a fender solid body electric guitar or electric bass guitar.

There were a lot who tapped pre-EVH. Another notable one is Jeff Beck. But Halen ... as you mentioned ... took it to a whole new level, where it became almost a cottage industry. Every metal player in the early '80s was a tapping fool. And that was all because of Eddie.

Another area where Halen excelled was:
1) Songwriting -- Don't forget that his guitar playing would not be so memorable if it weren't attached to so many amazing tunes. A great solo is only truly memorable when it is part of a great song.
2) Showmanship -- If you never saw him live, you can not get what an amazing showman he is. It would blow me away how he could play so amazingly and run all over the place. Van Halen was ridiculously good live.

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Laughing out loud with fear and hope, I have a desperate plan ...

I liked the first couple of Van Halen albums with David Lee Roth. I also liked 5150 with Sammy Hagar. But like a previous forum member said, "that was then - this is now".

I never cared for Guns 'n Roses. I couldn't stand Axl's voice - his vocals were like fingernails on a chalk board! But then, Slash is a heck of a guitarist with great tone!

Edit: Since you guys were mentioning fretboard tapping... Here's the legendary Chet Atkins way back in the early 70's playing "Orange Blossom Special" and launches into some wicked fretboard tapping!

http://youtu.be/7Svm_Vnntyk